Giant egg laid by Ipswich hen

That must have been painful – a hen has laid an egg four times the size of a normal egg, its owner said yesterday.

The massive egg laid by Matilda the hen, next to a normal-sized egg fr comparison purposes

Matilda the hen has only ever produced four eggs in her life, according to her owner, so it must have been a shock when she laid one which was approximately four times bigger than the average chicken egg. Or maybe she’d just been saving herself.

Her owner, Mark Cornish, said the egg is about 9cm (3.5in) high and has a circumference of 21cm (8.3in).

Mr Cornish, 36, of Ipswich, said he was extremely shocked when he pulled the enormous egg out of the hutch at the bottom of his garden.

‘I was so surprised, I thought a goose must have got in there by mistake,’ he said. ‘It does not look as though a chicken would have laid it. I think it is four times bigger than a normal egg.’

‘The problem is the shell is paper thin. It’s already had a crack in it so I think I might have to eat it tonight.

Matilda the hen: looks a little flustered, and who can blame her?

‘Matilda has not been laying eggs that long – this is only her fourth or fifth – so it must have come as a bit of a shock for her.’

The lecturer and his partner, Denise Bartram, have kept their four hens, Matilda, Phyllis, Ada and Polly, in their garden for the past six months.Despite her huge effort, Matilda, a Dutch Welsummer hen, sadly did not make the top of the world record charts.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records said: ‘The largest hen egg was a five-yolked egg measuring 31cm (12.2in) around the long axis, 22.8cm (9in) around the short and weighing nearly 340g (12oz). It was laid by a Black Minorca at Mr Stafford’s Damsteads Farm, Mellor, Lancs, in 1896.’